Servais de Condé or Condez (employed 1561–1574) was a French servant at the court of Mary Queen of Scots, in charge of her wardrobe and the costume for masques performed at the Scottish royal court.
Varlet of the Wardrobe He was usually referred to as Servais or Servie in Scottish records. Although he is sometimes described as Mary's chamberlain, records call him a varlet, "virlote in her grace chalmer".Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), p. 21.Michael Pearce, "Account of George Wishart of Drymme", Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, 17 (Edinburgh: SHS, 2025), pp. 17, 26. He was also paid for his role as a "varlet of the wardrobe", and managed the queen's stock of rich silks and fabrics used for costume and interior decoration.Gordon Donaldson, Thirds of Benefices (Edinburgh, 1949), p. 176. The other varlets were Toussaint Courcelles and John Balfour. Angell Marie was a varlet of wardrobe in 1565.Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 438.
Soon after Mary's arrival in Scotland, in September 1561, Servais de Condé worked in Holyrood Palace lining a cabinet room for the queen with 26 ells of a fabric called "Paris Green".James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), p. 66. The Italian cloth merchant and financier Timothy Cagnioli advanced £500 Scots for the project.Gordon Donaldson, Thirds of Benefices (Edinburgh: SHS, 1949), p. 170. The English diplomat Thomas Randolph mentions this cabinet as a space to which he was not admitted, where the queen withdrew to write letters and to weep.Clare Hunter, Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power (Sceptre, 2020), p. 150: Joseph Bain, Calendar of State Papers, Scotland: 1547-1563, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 628, 630. Randolph instead met the queen and her council in her bed chamber.Joseph Bain, Calendar of State Papers, Scotland: 1563-1569, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 31: Alexander Nancy Johnson, 'Mary Stuart and Her Rebels-Turned-Privy Counsellors: Performance of the Ritual of Counsel', in Helen Matheson-Pollock, Joanne Paul, Catherine Fletcher, Queenship and Counsel in Early Modern Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), pp. 161-186. Servais made furnishings for the bedchamber, including black cushions, a black tablecloth, and a suite of seat furniture in black velvet in November 1562.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland: 1559-1566, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), pp. 215-6. According to Randolph and Bedford's description of the murder of David Rizzio, the cabinet was 12 feet square, furnished with a reposing bed and a table seating three.Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 1 vol. 2 (London, 1824), p. 210.
In September and November 1561 Servais made inventories of Mary's wardrobe and the goods of Mary of Guise with her lady-in-waiting Mademoiselle Rallay. These inventories were later annotated by Mr John Wood, the secretary of Regent Moray.Thomas Thomson, A Collection of Inventories and other Records of the Royal Wardrobe (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 123-52: Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. xviii-xx, 18. Servais made an inventory of the altar cloths and vestments from the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle in January 1562, which had been transferred to his keeping at Holyrood along with a parchment Missal and an Antiphonal.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. xxvii, cxli-cxlii, 59.
Servais was made keeper of Holyroodhouse by privy seal letter on 20 January 1565 during Mary's intended journey to Aberdeen taking responsibility from Giovanni Francisco de Busso, an Italian who was supervisor of royal buildings.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. xviii-xix fn: Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland vol. 5 part 1 (Edinburgh, 1957), p. 536 no. 1909. Busso had joined the household of Mary of Guise in 1554.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 703 "di Busa".
In September 1566, Servais sent costume to Stirling as a wedding gift for Nichola or Nicholas Wardlaw, known as Madame Torrie, one of the queen's gentlewomen.John Charles Gibson, The Wardlaws in Scotland: A History of the Wardlaws of Wilton and Torrie (Edinburgh, 1912), pp. 70–72. The list of materials survives in French and in Scots, the gown was made of 11 French measure ells of "violat velvote" or vellours viollet. Her white satin sleeves and skirt front, the grand manches and davant, were decorated with narrow gold braids, petite natte d'or.Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 12 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1970), pp. 19, 395–396.
Servais was involved in the decoration of Stirling Castle for the baptism of Prince James.Receipt in National Library of Scotland, Balcarres Papers, vol. 5. He kept a memoir written in French of silk textiles and other fabrics used by Mary or given as gifts, which runs from 1 September 1561 to May 1567. It includes details of colour and fabric.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. 125-176. He supervised the dismantling and refashioning of beds confiscated from Huntly Castle.Michael Pearce, 'Beds of Chapel form in sixteenth-century Scottish inventories: the worst sort of beds', Regional Furniture, vol. 27 (2013), pp. 85-7
Servais wrote a note of the things destroyed in the explosion at the Kirk o'Field, where they had been sent for the use of Lord Darnley in February 1567. These included a suite of tapestries from Huntly Castle.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. 177-8. The servant known as "French Paris" helped Servais at the Kirk o' Field, and the day after Darnley's death came to queen's bedchamber at Holyrood to hang the bed with mourning black and light candles in the "ruelle", a space between the bed and the wall.George Seton, History of the family of Seton during eight centuries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1896), p. 128: Robert Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials (Edinburgn, 1833), p. 509. Servais's note of the furnishings at the Kirk o'Field is frequently quoted by historians to comment on the chain of events leading up to the murder, some arguing that the lodging was furnished in a hurry, or with George Buchanan inferring the queen's guilt from the substitution of a lesser green bed for a bed with rich black curtains.Robert Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials (Edinburgh, 1833), p. 501: Aikman, James, trans., George Buchanan's History of Scotland, vol. 2 (Glasgow, 1827), p. 493.
A queen deposed On 10 July 1567 Mary's opponents, the Confederate lords, ordered him to surrender to silverware in his keeping for coining to the Master of Mint John Acheson.Joseph Stevenson, Selections from unpublished manuscripts illustrating the reign of Mary Queen of Scotland (Glasgow, 1837), pp. 194–195John Parker Lawson, History of Scotland by Robert Keith, 1 (Edinburgh, 1844), p. cv This included a silver gilt nef or ship for the queen's table.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. cxlviii. On 25 July Servais was asked to produce the crown sceptre and sword, the Honours of Scotland for the coronation of James VI following Mary's abdication.History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland by Robert Keith, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1844), p. cvi.
Subsequently, Servais sent clothes and sewing thread for embroidery to Mary in her prison at Lochleven Castle.Clare Hunter, Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power (Sceptre, 2020), pp. 215, 218-9, 221. On 3 September 1567 Mary wrote to Robert Melville to ask Servais, her "concierge" to send silk thread and sewing gold and silver, and two pairs of sheets with black thread for embroidery, and needles and a mould (cushion) for net-work called "rasour" or "réseau", from the royal wardrobe, with dried plums and pears.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 4, p. 616: William Fraser, The Melvilles, Earls of Melville, and the Leslies, Earls of Leven, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 7. Some of the request was fulfilled by new purchases by Regent Moray in October.Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), p. 83. Servais, described in the accounts as "the Quenis grace chalmer child" made clothes, or supervised the making of clothes for Mary, especially linen shirts called "sarks" and also other items made of velvet.Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer: 1566-1574, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), pp. 83, 93-4. A memorandum written in French of further textiles and thread sent to Mary at Lochleven, Carlisle and Bolton is associated with Servais by historians including Margaret Swain, but does not feature his name.Miscellaneous Papers, Principally Illustrative of Events in the Reigns of Queen Mary and King James VI (Maitland Club: Glasgow, 1834), 12-19: Margaret Swain, The Needlework of Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1973), pp. 54-6.
Servais packed and transported two beds from Linlithgow Palace to James VI at Stirling Castle in November 1567.Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), p. 84. When English soldiers came to Scotland in 1570, William Maitland of Lethington and William Kirkcaldy of Grange ordered Servais de Condé to transport the tapestry and furnishings of Holyroodhouse to Edinburgh Castle for safe keeping.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1902), p. 303 no. 405 (his name appears as 'service' in the calendar).
Mary wrote from Sheffield Castle on 18 July 1574 to the Archbishop of Glasgow, recommending her old and faithful servant Servais de Condé, who was not paid his due from her French estates, and she made an order for his pension to be paid.David Templeman, Mary, Queen of Scots: The Captive Queen in England (Exeter, 2016), p. 113. She wanted Servais to go to Scotland and take inventories of her furniture and discover its current keepers. She would like to maintain his son-her-law in Scotland, meaning probably Benoît Garrouste (see below).Agnes Strickland, Letters of Mary, Queen of Scots, vol. 1 (London, 1842), p. 200.A. Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, vol. 4 (London, 1852), p. 188.
Masque costumes and mummery in Scotland On 15 November 1569 Servais handed the library of Mary Queen of Scots, cloths used in her chapel, and masque costumes called "dansyne cleiss" and "maskeine cleis" to Moray's agents.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. 179, 185-6: HMC 6th Report: Earl of Moray (London, 1877), p. 672. At the Scottish court masques with music and dancing were performed in elaborate and unusual costumes at the weddings of leading courtiers, like that of James Stewart, 1st Lord Doune and Margaret Campbell, sister of the Earl of Argyll at Castle Campbell on 10 January 1563. The masque involved courtiers and musicians disguised as shepherds in white silk taffeta.Michael Pearce, 'Maskerye Claythis for James VI and Anna of Denmark', Medieval English Theatre 43, 2021 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), pp. 110-111 Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 678-9, 681: Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. lxxxii, 136, 138.